Sepia latimanus and Homo sapiens
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
I saw this picture, and thought it looked almost exactly like how Skatje reacted the first time we took her to a sushi bar. Except that she would have had an expression of horror and dread in the first panel.
If you’ve got a few hours (he does go on), read Orac’s contribution to the Offit book club discussion. It’s lots of fun: it’s got the anti-vaxing squirrels chittering insanely. If you don’t have the time to read the whole post, just browse the comments for the laughs!
Got your popcorn and jujubes? Ready for the clown show? The debate begins shortly, and this is the place to leave your comments.
Half an hour in, and I’m seeing Biden being good and specific with facts at his fingertips, and doing a good job of answering questions with substance. Palin is an airhead who’s spouting more fluff and ignoring the questions — she keeps going back to energy and pretending she’s an expert. It’s very annoying, but she’s not descending into fumbling babble-babble, so I’m sure the audience is going right along with it. Come on, Biden, slam her back on the futility of thinking Alaska’s relatively tiny oil reserves can save the country.
Jebus, now she’s pretending to be an environmentalist.
I’m really disappointed that Biden wants to deny homosexual marriage, just like Palin.
Oh, no. SHe just praised Henry Kissinger and claimed that those foreigners hate our freedoms. She’s another Bush.
I’m happy with Biden so far — he’s good at bringing everything back to McCain’s record. Palin just fudges McCain’s record at every step.
Man, Palin is revolting: she just said that all those Washington insiders are the same (including McCain?) and that Joe Biden has been approving of McCain’s war plans all along. Ugh.
And if she claims she’s a maverick one more time … she’s a Republican tool, get real.
WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL PALIN THAT ALASKAN OIL RESERVES ARE NOT SUFFICIENT FOR ENERGY INDEPENDENCE?
Shining city on a hill, beacon perfect, force for good…empty, dishonest platitudes. We’re not going to become a better country with a gladhander who thinks we’re already perfect in charge.
Oh, good! Biden charges up and denounces this “maverick” nonsense. Best part of the debate so far.
All over. Biden clearly won — he sounded presidential, human, intelligent, and actually addressed the questions without being too harsh on Palin. Palin was a flag-waving cheerleader, with a voice that really grated on me, and she was evasive in answering questions. She didn’t pull any major gaffes, though, so since everyone had exceedingly low expectations for her, they’ll probably think she did fine.
No big knockout, then. No huge embarrassing boo-boos from either side to keep the media entertained. I’m still mostly reassured that Biden will be good in the job.
This is a very silly story.
Spring Hill resident Anita Koper thought she’d heard it all – until last week, when her 12-year-old daughter came home from school at Explorer K-8 and started asking her about “revolution.”
“She said her science teacher told the class that in some religions, if you are bad, you come back in another life as a dog, cow or pig,” Koper said.
She said she soon realized her daughter was asking about evolution, not revolution, and that her sixth-grade science teacher had mentioned the theory of reincarnation.“He also told the class that if you are any religion, you can just go to a Catholic church and they will let you in if you give them money,” Koper said. “I am Catholic and this teacher should get his facts straight before he starts talking about religion. Unless he’s a theologian, he shouldn’t be preaching about this.”
Why should she object to tales of reincarnation? Isn’t it obvious that her daughter is the reincarnation of Gilda Radner?
As Florida Citizens for Science points out, this was a case of a teacher cursorily answering questions that students brought up, prompted by some obligingly vague mentions of alternative faith-based explanations for our origins in their textbook. The teacher was not promoting some kind of bizarre New Age Buddhist-Catholic Prosperity Fusion religion, he was simply trying to cope with a few off-the-wall queries from students who might have been sincere, or might have been acting the smart-ass. The story was further distorted by this young lady, who apparently wasn’t paying close attention, and only echoed the freaky strange bits of the class and even there, got them wrong.
This is not unusual. These are 12 year olds. Little distracted and easily distractible kids in 6th grade.
This, of course, is the milieu into which creationists think it would be worthwhile to introduce a welter of curious myths, superstitions, speculations, and maybe even genuine alternative scientific explanations for various phenomena (but probably not — creationists are allergic to real science), all under the great and sacred principle of “fairness” and the admirable ideal of exposing students to the immense range of human thought, without regard for the filters of likelihood that science tends to throw up. Can you imagine what stories they’ll be bringing home to their parents if the Discovery Institute has their way?
Ignore the bluster below the fold; it’s another Catholic calling me out to the flagpole for a whuppin’.
The latest edition of the Tangled Bank is online at Evolved and Rational. Say hooray for collections of science posts, and go read!
You may have heard that YouTube blocked Pat Condell’s latest video — here’s an alternate source for that video.
I have to disagree with part of what Condell says in it, though. He is arguing against the promotion of “tolerance and diversity,” saying it has gone too far. I don’t think so. I think tolerance and diversity are great, I want a society with an interesting mix of weirdos and straights and strange cultural backgrounds, and I want no one to be afraid to express themselves, or worse, to be actively suppressed. What has gotten out of hand is the demand for outright respect, not just tolerance, and the de facto view that certain views, such as that religion is good and just and wonderful for you, must be held by everyone, or you are a bad person.
Condell is right that shari’a is ridiculous…but so are the ten commandments. The reason people are bending over backwards to respect Islam is that they know any open laughter at one form of religious authority opens the door disrespect of the principle that any religious authority can be the foundation of a rational society.
Tolerance is good. Intolerance is what Condell is experiencing when god-lovin’ dogmatists try to silence him. We should all have the right to point and laugh — we can laugh at Christians and Muslims, and if their faith is really that strong, they should be able to bear it; they can laugh at atheists, too, and I’m confident that we can cope, as long as they don’t censor instead of laugh. And I fear that they’d rather silence us.
And, by the way, legislating shari’a into power is not tolerance, nor is opposing it intolerance. Ancient bigotries and ignorance should not be granted any kind of legal authority.
Here are the details people wanted; there’s more in the Facebook announcement. I understand it’s scheduled for the same time as their homecoming football game, but you can always get the score to that later…come on around, we’ll have a good time.
I’m looking forward to meeting Carrier, finally, and of course, all the Missourians. We should plan a Pharyngufest for that evening (it’s a Saturday), so even if you do choose to go to a boring old football game, we can meet up later. Leave suggestions in the comments for good locations.
Today is the day we all dread, the day of the vice-presidential debates. We know Sarah Palin is incompetent and not fit for office, but the question is…will she manage to pull off the spunky/cute routine and win over the superficial morons of the country despite her Bush-like anti-intellectualism and lack of curiosity, even if she does execute a few major flubs? Will Biden throw away a victory by looking pretentious? We shall find out this evening.
Until then, warm up with these amusing links to the ongoing Chronicles of Palin.
Ron Numbers on Palin’s creationism
Palin can’t name a single newspaper or magazine she reads
Remember the mysterious bulge on Bush’s back during his debates? Do you think they’re frantically fitting Palin with an itty-bitty microphone right now?
